Aristotle on Knowledge and Learning

The Posterior Analytics

David Bronstein

Description

'All teaching and all intellectual learning come to be from pre-existing knowledge.' So begins Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, one of the most important, and difficult, works in the history of western philosophy. David Bronstein sheds new light on this challenging text by arguing that it is coherently structured around two themes of enduring philosophical interest: knowledge and learning.

The Posterior Analytics, on Bronstein's reading, is a sustained examination of scientific knowledge: what it is and how it is acquired. Aristotle first discusses two principal forms of scientific knowledge (epist?m? and nous). He then provides a compelling account, in reverse order, of the types of learning one needs to undertake in order to acquire them. The PosteriorAnalytics thus emerges as an elegantly organized work in which Aristotle describes the mind's ascent from sense-perception of particulars to scientific knowledge of first principles.

Bronstein also highlights Plato's influence on Aristotle's text. For each type of learning Aristotle discusses, Bronstein uncovers an instance of Meno's Paradox (a puzzle from Plato's Meno according to which inquiry and learning are impossible) and a solution to it. In addition, he argues, against current orthodoxy, that Aristotle is committed to the Socratic Picture of inquiry, according to which one should seek what a thing's essence is before seeking its demonstrable attributes and their causes.

Aristotle on Knowledge and Learning will be of interest to students and scholars of ancient philosophy, epistemology, or philosophy of science.

Aristotle on Knowledge and Learning

The Posterior Analytics

David Bronstein

Author Information

David Bronstein, Georgetown University

David Bronstein is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Georgetown University. He was educated in Canada and previously taught at Boston University and the University of Oxford. He is the author of several articles on Aristotle's epistemology and philosophy of science.

Aristotle on Knowledge and Learning

The Posterior Analytics

David Bronstein

Reviews and Awards

"...the book is more available to non-experts and students-and even more so because all Greek words are transliterated in the main text and all quotes are translated into English (with the Greek in footnotes). The book also contains helpful diagrams and lists. Much of the discussion centres around lengthy quotes from the APo, which are numbered from T1 to T58. A table of these texts, with the page number that they appear on, would have been helpful, especially as the author refers back to these texts throughout the book. To conclude, both non-experts, who can largely ignore the footnotes, and experts should find much of interest in Bronstein's book." --Petter Sandstad, Bryn Mawr Classical Review